County courthouse buildings are an indelible part of the rural Texas landscape. In addition to displaying a variety of architectural styles, the courthouses of central Texas also demonstrate how society’s relationships with public buildings and government have radically changed over the course of the last 140 years. More than a mere index of a building type, this talk will reveal how county courthouses relate to the communities that created them and reflect the values of their particular era.
Brantley Hightower is an architect in the office of Lake|Flato in San Antonio and has taught at several schools of architecture in the state including Texas Tech, Trinity University and the University of Texas at Austin.